Paintings continue with three sketches by Honoré Daumier, and set pieces by Hispaleto, telling the misadventures of Cervantes’ Don Quixote.
Don Quixote
Enormously popular across Europe, Cervantes’ ‘Don Quixote’ led to some fine narrative paintings, but why so few even in the 19th century?
From his first sally alone to be dubbed a knight by an innkeeper, to his ignominious defeat by the Knight of the White Moon on Barcelona beach, and his death.
Walkover success in another duel, but Don Quixote changes his mind and heads for Barcelona. After adventures there on a galley, he’s finally defeated on the beach, and obliged to return home.
The pair meet a Duke and Duchess who invite them to stay in their palatial castle so they can play tricks on them remorselessly.
From preparations for their third sally to the massacre of Don Pedro’s puppet theatre, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza have trouble keeping out of trouble.
Once back in his village, Don Quixote explained about his defeat and promise to stay at home for a year. Over a period of ten days, he later declined and died.
Sancho devises a trick so he can complete his penance and get rich. The pair meet a character from the book, and discover they have literary doubles.
Arriving in the courtyard of the Duke and Duchess’s castle, a young woman’s body lies on a catafalque. It’s Altisidora, who died of unrequited love for Don Quixote.
When they sleep at the place they had previously been trampled by bulls, they’re trampled again, this time by over 600 pigs. The following night they’re abducted by ten armed men.
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